Critique Groups

I have the greatest critique group in the world--Suz, Alison, Sara and Jane. It's so great to be able to meet every other Monday with these four ladies and know they not only appreciate my talent, but they will in friendship and with complete honesty let me know where I can improve my story and areas they think work especially well.

Yesterday we went over chapter three of Beyond the Beast. I've got areas to tighten, areas to expand. But, according to them, this story that's causing me so much trouble is working. And working well.

I'm now in Chapter Six and it's starting to come a little bit easier. Yay!

Another thing that's great about this group? They know I'm crunching to get this done. Where we usually critique one chapter every other week, they've all told me to send them whatever I have whenever I have it ready.

Putting a group of women together is a crap shoot. They can be catty and jealous of each other's success, or they can be supportive and encouraging. I lucked out. I got supportive and encouraging.

I love these girls. I really, really love them!


Hey! Anna J. Evans is blogging over at Torrid today. Go on over and say hi.

The Definition Of Nasty

I've been thinking -- a lot -- about what the word 'nasty' means. Here's what I got from an online dictionary:

1) disgustingly dirty; physically repellent
2) morally offensive; indecent
3) malicious; spiteful

Why am I stuck on this particular word? Here's the thing. I was talking to my sister-in-law about my pitches -- and the requests for manuscripts (full and partial) -- from St. Martins. After she told me how great that was, and I mean immediately after, she asked me if I was going to tone it down, make it not as nasty (in this case, meaning "morally offensive" or "indecent").

I told her no. After a couple more minutes of going back and forth, I asked her if she thought that a Christian shouldn't write a murder mystery where people killed people, since killing's a sin. She kind of hemmed and hawed, then asked, "Are they married?"

Me: "My characters?"

Her: "Yeah."

Me: "No."

Her: "Then I've got a problem with that."

Because, I guess, pre-marital sex is a bigger sin than murder. Or describing the act of love-making between two people who are in love or at least on the verge of it is worse than describing a murder scene.

*sigh* I just don't get it. But I do know this: I'm not sharing my news with my sister-in-law anymore. My mother wishes I wrote children's books, but she was happy with my news and didn't ask me if I was going to tone it down. So why does my sister-in-law feel it necessary to dictate my morality?

Whatever. I lost sleep over it the night before last, but no more. Don't get me wrong--I love her. I've known her for 22 years. She and I are good friends. This is just something we're going to agree to disagree on and I'm done expecting her to be or wishing she would be happy for me. Without the judgment. You know... Don't rain on my parade!

So, my sister and my friends will continue to be my support and my cheerleaders. My sister-in-law, the next time she asks how things are going, will get a simple "Fine."

St. Martins asked me to send a full AND a partial manuscript. Nasty or not, how great is that?!?

April 30th In History

On this day in history:

1789: George Washington becomes the first U.S. President
1803: Louisiana sold to the United States by France
1945: Hitler commits suicide
1975: The Viet Nam war ends, with the South surrendering to the North

April 30th is also the start of Beltane (or May Day, as we call it). It celebrates the height of Spring and the flowering of life. The dance around the phallic Maypole symbolizes the sacred marriage of the Goddess and God. This is the time of the Lord and Lady -- the festival of unashamed sexuality and fertility. On May Eve (April 30th), bless your garden in the old way by making love with your lover in it. Make a wish as you jump a bonfire (make it a little one, okay?) or a candle, for good luck. Then welcome in the May at dawn with singing and dancing.

A Milestone!

Phew! I made it to 100 pages on Beyond the Beast last night. That puts me almost a third of the way through. I'm very happy about that.

Very happy!

So happy, in fact, I thought I'd share a picture of my hero, Ryder. Keep in mind the moon is full, and he's not in a very good mood...


I have my RWA chapter meeting today, and I anticipate coming home fully revved up to write, but tired so I'll probably nap instead. :)

The Writer's Struggle

Words are my life. Words, I hope, will earn a living for me. So why do they come so hard sometimes?

Is it because I don't have the story plotted out well enough? Or that I have it too plotted out and have removed some of the "magic" of the storytelling?

Maybe I don't understand my characters enough to really get inside their heads.

Maybe it's hormones.

I dunno.

I have managed about 2,000 words each day so far, but it's been, well, a struggle. Maybe more so now that I have additional pressure to get this manuscript done.

But I guess that's what life is all about, right? Pressure, put on us by ourselves and by others. I've got to get used to writing under deadline. It's just... what was I thinking?!? I've got 70,000 words to write in a limited amount of time.

Oy. Well, I'll get it done. To fail is unacceptable. And so I leave you now, for today, to sit and write at least another 2,500 words. Hopefully they'll be good words. But if they're not, at least I'm writing.

Have a great one, everybody!

(P.S. It's my author day over at WCP Torrid's Readers Group. Come on over -- I'll be posting excerpts of Chocolate-Covered Werewolves, and maybe even a sneak peek at Hot Time in the City, my Summer Sizzlers story.)

Author Day At NCP And Other Appearances

Hey, I'm blogging over at NCP today, so come on over. I'm talking about dreams (yeah, I'm still hung up on my snake dream. I mean, WTF??? Some people dream of their characters or hot guys, and I get a mutant snake.). Come on over and chat with me so I don't feel so alone.

I'm also chatting over at Pink Posse with the other LSB authors today. I'm there from 5-7 p.m. EST, so if you get a chance, stop on by!

And so my space here isn't so lonely, here's some eye candy for all you crazy guys and gals. It's a tattoo theme...

Dreams

I very rarely remember my dreams. The ones I do are the ones where I wake up directly following the dream's end, thinking 'Okay. That was weird.'

Here's my dream from last night. I'm sleeping, but wake when I feel something wet trickle down my back. I reach around to wipe it off (it tickles), and my hand encounters ... something. Something soft. Something alive. Almost immediately I realize it's a snake. (And since I'm in Arizona, naturally it was a diamondback rattlesnake.) I grab it (interestingly enough, just under the head so it can't bite me) and bring it around to look at it. The only thought I have is to get it outside.

I don't recognize my surroundings. (I mean, now that I'm awake, I don't know where I was in the dream. I wasn't at home.) But it seemed to take an awfully long time to get to an outside door. And the longer it took, the madder the snake got.

Just as I finally reached a door, he'd had enough. He unhinged his jaw and somehow bent his head and sank his fangs into my hand--right in the fleshy part between thumb and forefinger. (Remember, I'm holding him so he isn't supposed to be able to do that. Lucky me. I get a mutant snake.) I toss him outside and look down at my hand, which had already started to turn bluish-purple, except where the fang marks showed as two white, raised bumps.

That's when I woke up.

Weird, huh?

Wonder what it means?